Craig B
06-21-2005, 11:07 PM
A coworker of mine is working on a brochure that talks about changes taking place in the financial industry (not terribly exciting.) He showed a few nice, abstract cover ideas, using a few simple photos and the client responded with this art direction/feedback:
This has not been edited and this is 100% real.
In terms of relevant images, I would be thinking along the lines of some kind of abstract/surreal representation of a workplace with workers sitting in regimented rows and in mono or just two colour outfits. Some more colourfully dressed employees could be buried in the foundations (these are the ‘hidden stars’). The whole edifice would be located on a volcano or a burning bush/mountain, or set precariously over water as per a bridge. Someone (the CEO) would be shouting exhortations into a megaphone and most would ignore listlessly, but others would be moving and there would be a stream of people moving towards a more attractive, clearly prosperous citadel in the distance. On the way, they would be trying on different sets of clothing/fancy dress outfits as if at a children’s party, and discarding some. The interim ground would be a desert (shades of Moses leading the chosen people out of the wilderness and also alluding to the comment in the report of the need to go through a Valley of Death for deep change to take place). Some would be picked off by circling vultures as they cross the desert.
If I had to condense this into just a few images, I’d home in on the idea of people trying on different outfits and personae for size (picking up on the consumer lifestyle programmes) and morphing from dreary drones to shiny new empowered ants! The burning platform and the idea of no going back is another powerful image.
Alternatively, the designers could pick up on the single idea of metamorphosis, and look for abstract images of this, but ideally we want it in the context that if the transformation does not take place, death will occur. In other words, there has to be a presumption that change is essential for survival – so they could borrow from images of evolutionary/survival of the fittest.
They could take an image of a treadmill with different scenes at the various points eg companies that stay put (Victorian imagery/industrial revolution) and others which our empowered employees trying on outfits, racing into the future.
If the designers are only working with photo libraries – in which case they can presumably only handle collages and special effects, realising any of the above ideas could be tough, so your idea of pure graphics would also be very effective – ie the cover could show the letters in the words change management passing through all kinds of transformations – sea-changes, step changes, ex-change, changing rooms, as per one of the sections in the report, passing through a house with lots of rooms and options and emerging from other doors in a new font, mirror image, transposed, glammed up.
This has not been edited and this is 100% real.
In terms of relevant images, I would be thinking along the lines of some kind of abstract/surreal representation of a workplace with workers sitting in regimented rows and in mono or just two colour outfits. Some more colourfully dressed employees could be buried in the foundations (these are the ‘hidden stars’). The whole edifice would be located on a volcano or a burning bush/mountain, or set precariously over water as per a bridge. Someone (the CEO) would be shouting exhortations into a megaphone and most would ignore listlessly, but others would be moving and there would be a stream of people moving towards a more attractive, clearly prosperous citadel in the distance. On the way, they would be trying on different sets of clothing/fancy dress outfits as if at a children’s party, and discarding some. The interim ground would be a desert (shades of Moses leading the chosen people out of the wilderness and also alluding to the comment in the report of the need to go through a Valley of Death for deep change to take place). Some would be picked off by circling vultures as they cross the desert.
If I had to condense this into just a few images, I’d home in on the idea of people trying on different outfits and personae for size (picking up on the consumer lifestyle programmes) and morphing from dreary drones to shiny new empowered ants! The burning platform and the idea of no going back is another powerful image.
Alternatively, the designers could pick up on the single idea of metamorphosis, and look for abstract images of this, but ideally we want it in the context that if the transformation does not take place, death will occur. In other words, there has to be a presumption that change is essential for survival – so they could borrow from images of evolutionary/survival of the fittest.
They could take an image of a treadmill with different scenes at the various points eg companies that stay put (Victorian imagery/industrial revolution) and others which our empowered employees trying on outfits, racing into the future.
If the designers are only working with photo libraries – in which case they can presumably only handle collages and special effects, realising any of the above ideas could be tough, so your idea of pure graphics would also be very effective – ie the cover could show the letters in the words change management passing through all kinds of transformations – sea-changes, step changes, ex-change, changing rooms, as per one of the sections in the report, passing through a house with lots of rooms and options and emerging from other doors in a new font, mirror image, transposed, glammed up.